When I read the original post to this it made me think
of autoconf for unix/linux/whatever C development. I
haven't actually used it, but it seems to do what
you're talking about. It goes through all the different
environment things that would change the way the code
would be compiled (what libraries are there, how do
they work, platform ideosyncracies, etc.) so it will
configure itself for the platform it's being put on.

Just suggesting that might be a source of some ideas.

-joel

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